heir(ess)
by queenofcawdor
Summary: draco has never been much of a boy and: the girl who lived is gay
1. minted

"Lying to ourselves is more deeply ingrained than lying to others."

Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

Draco Malfoy had never been much of a boy, not like his family needed him to be. He was the last of a line of a distinguished and Noble House, and he needed to be a he. He had to be normal. Otherwise, the family might be destroyed.

( _it was familial, this feeling of wrongness._

 _bellatrix never felt like a woman, and lucius never felt like any gender at all_ )

Draco hid his fears close to his chest, but his mother always gave him soft encouragements.

( _you're beautiful, darling she'd whisper carefully._

 _this will look stunning on you_

 _she'd murmur as she slipped a pearl necklace gently around his neck, the pearls feminine in a way he dared not breathe_ )

Sometimes, growing up, he'd read about glamour spells and wonder about a softer jawline and gentler waist.

At eleven, his father told him that at Hogwarts, he mustn't show that he wasn't much of a boy at all.

( _draco didn't know how to act any different than himself. all he knew of boys were the cutting remarks of teddy nott and blaise zabini, the blunt cruelty of vince and greg, and the impressive, impassive coldness held by his stoic father._ )

Draco threw away the cheap Muggle makeup he had purchased. He couldn't look at the pale pink lipstick without thinking of the disapproving face his father had stared down at him. He didn't throw away the heels he nicked from his mother. Draco realized Narcissa knew about this, knew about the dresses he had worn and the heels he had tottered in. But they were not for him anymore.

He was to be a man, the heir for the richest family in Britain, and he was so confused as to why.

He resolved his confusion by taking it out on the Girl-Who-Lived, Harriet Dorea Potter. She declined his friendship, preferring to sit with Rhonda Weasley.

Merlin, Harry Potter, the bleeding Girl-Who-Lived, chose to sit with a Weasley instead of a Malfoy.

Draco decided to focus his rage on her, then, rather than on himself. Why did she get to be a girl? How dare she be normal?

Of course, Harriet Potter being who she was, normal didn't come very naturally.

( _a gentle way of saying that harriet saw normality, craved normality, and when she tried to achieve it, she managed to blow a hole through it_ )

Draco's turmoil had to rear her twisted head once Harriet Potter came out as gay in Fifth Year, with her long, kinky locks and dark, smooth skin and striking green eyes.

( _how dare she how dare she - she is an heir and heirs have to be straight and marry a man and marry a pureblood and marry and marry and produce heirs because heirs are to inherit the money and the status and the pureblood and homosexuality would destroy this how is this fair why does she get to be off why can't i)_

Draco began questioning the beliefs his parents had instilled in him that night, and then, then he realized it.

 _I am not a man_ , Draco discovers. _I am a woman_.

These fundamental truths help him-her disavow the twisted mess she had conjured for himself, and yet, she still knew one thing.

Harriet Potter was gay.

Harriet Potter was gay, and so was Draco.

This came with all the things Draco wished to know about Potter. Why did her lips curl up at the edges? How does her hair feel, in all of its curls? Why do her eyes seem to put a Confundus on Draco?

 _why is she so beautiful_

 _why am i not_


	2. chemistry

It's not wise to violate rules until you know how to observe them.

-T. S. Eliot

It took a very long time for Harriet Potter to figure out the whole gay thing. She was never against it; anything that Uncle Patrick and Aunt Veronica were against was quite alright, honestly.

It was Draco Malfoy, naturally. How could she be gay if she thought the raging asshat of a wizard was gorgeous?

( _but that fine blonde hair was so very different from the thick curls she had to hex into submission; those fine, fair features on that pale face with grey eyes inset…harriet wished that she had gotten her mother's white white skin and crimson hair. she might not have stood out so, otherwise._

 _potter hair her ass. if hogwarts wasn't so homogenous with brits then the wizards would call it what it was, but she didn't know, there was never anyone to ask. her relatives didn't like questions, and harriet's undetermined ethnicity ranged from arabic to west african to australian depending on which they hated most that day_ )

Bisexuality never occurred to her. The only boy she liked didn't proper count. Draco Malfoy was unnervingly beautiful, in the same way that the young Tom Riddle was beautiful, in the same way that flying was beautiful. There was a set about their pulchritude that transcended humans and genders and magic. It was.

After the holidays in Fifth Year, she noticed Malfoy was different. From his jawline to the lilt to his eyes, he was softer.

Beautiful. Harriet found herself wanting to lick up that jaw. Of course, then she saw his robes.

Those were—female clothes underneath the robes? Was Malfoy trying to kill her?

(probably) Malfoy was…very, very attractive dressed as a girl.

Then, once the _Prophets_ flew in, blaring headlines of _MALFOY HEIR-QUEER?_ , Harriet understood. Transgender was something she knew, something she had thought she was before realizing that being attracted to girls is okay for girls.

She half-expected Horatio Granger to start a GSA.

Bloody hell, though. If Draco Malfoy was a girl…oh, that made things so much more difficult. She could have passed her attraction to the bast—bitch off as a fluke, but no, Draco had to be a girl. A gorgeous gay one at that.

Harriet really needed a girlfriend. Now.

She always was getting into trouble, and if Draco Malfoy was anything, she was trouble.

She was knocked out of her musings by an anxious Rhonda. "Harri—Harriet. We are going to be late for Potions if you don't get your ass out of that seat."

"but Malfoy is a really hot gi—"

"I am not hearing this. We are going to deal with Snape. Get up before Horatio lectures us again. And Malfoy is not hot," Rhonda hissed at her, slight anger streaking across her face.

Harriet conceded and was thus tugged into double-Potions, prepared for the uncomfortable yelling and ranting of the colossal bitch that was their professor.

And—there it was. "Ah. Miss Potter, so kind of you to show up. I appreciate that you pretend to put effort in, considering your grades."

Oh, fuck her and all that her greasy hair stands for! After two hours of that drawl, Harriet was itching to get out.

"Only thirty minutes left, Rhonny," she murmured, eyes firmly on the clock, watching the second hand tick-tick-tick closer to another minute.

"Did you have something to add, Potter? I'm sure, knowing you, it will be quite brilliant," a venomous whisper drifted towards her.

Double-Potions was fucking terrible. She knew Malfoy was probably smirking and checked to verify—wait. Malfoy looked angry, and not at her for once.

"Professor Snape, I was wondering about how the reactions between wormwood and nightshade correlate with step 33 on the homework?" Malfoy's new, softer voice probably saved Snape from getting killed by a very angry Girl-who-Lived.

Then, finally, the agony was over. Rhonda whispered something to Harriet about "walking into lunch with Horatio," and she was gone. Bitch.

Harriet sighed and gathered her things to leave. Malfoy was still there, though. Saying something to her, something-

Holy shit, Malfoy was talking to her! Calm down, Harriet, what's the ba-bitch saying?

"—insist that I must tutor you. It's getting very annoying having to deal with you not knowing answers in class and slowing down my education to a Muggle pace."

 _Gah! Tutoring! It's like all the classics! Oh, wow, was Draco asking her out?_

Harriet Potter let out a noise that would have made an opera singer weep from jealousy. "Yes, yes! A million times yes!"

After hugging the Malfoy brat tightly, ignoring her wounded look, Harriet dragged her into the Great Hall behind her.

It was a Very Good Day.


End file.
